Isaak Iosifovich Dunayevsky (1900-1955) was born in Poltava, Ukraine. His grandfather was a cantor. His mother played the piano and sang for their seven children, of whom six brothers became musicians. His father worked as a cashier at a bank. He was also an amateur artist. At the age of 10, Dunayevsky got accepted into the Kharkov School of Music of the Imperial Russian Music Society to study piano and violin under Joseph Acheron and composition with Simon Bogatyrev. After his graduation from the Kharkov Conservatory in 1919, Dunayevsky start working as a violinist and composer at the Kharkov Drama Theatre. Dunayevsky wrote music to a lot of operettas, ballets, cantatas, choruses, songs and romances.In 1924, he moved to Moscow to run the Theatre Hermitage. His fame came after writing scores to films such as 'Volga-Volga' (1938), 'Veselye Rebyata' (1934). Isaak Iosifovich in collaboration with Leonid Utyosov (famous Russian singer and conductor) first introduced into the rigid Soviet culture the taste of Jazz.